Ecuador’s Enner Valencia Likely Heading to West Ham United

Pachuca F.C. president, Jesus Martinez, announced that an English club are close to completing the signing Ecuadorian forward Enner Valencia. The destination is thought most likely to be West Ham United. After an impressive performance at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Valencia has been receiving attention from multiple European clubs such as Porto and Everton but has focused in on a move to West Ham. “There are various offers for Enner Valencia, the strongest and closest to what the player and us are demanding is from a club from England. We are making huge steps to finalize the negotiation,” Martinez told Ecuadorian media outlet Ecuagol.

Martinez will not reveal the details of a potential deal but told Ecuagol that if the agreement goes through it will be a record for a Mexican club, “I won’t talk about prices, but if he is sold, it will be the highest transfer fee ever in Mexican football football, otherwise he won’t be sold.”

The price for Valencia is likely record-breaking due in large measure to his three goals for Ecuador during the World Cup group stage. He was the only goal scorer in the entire tournament for Ecuador. Since joining the Ecuadorian National team in 2012 Valencia has scored seven goals in 13 appearances. The 24 year-old forward started out as a winger but was ultimately moved to forward due to teammate, Christian Benítez’s tragic passing last year from a heart condition. Valencia won the Golden Boot at the Copa Sudamericana in 2013 with five total goals.

Valencia first joined Emelec in 2010 and made 124 appearances scoring 27 goals before transferring to Pachuca where he played the past season. He scored an impressive 18 goals in 27 appearances for the Mexican giants. Pachuca would rather not sell him, but they will not hold back the player’s development, “It hurts me, I don’t want to sell him and neither does the manager or the fans but we can’t go against the career the kid aspires to,” said Martinez. Valencia will look to make an immediate impact at West Ham who are likely to utilize him as a striker. This is a position the Hammers were lacking in at the beginning of last season when Andy Carroll missed substantial playing time with an injury.